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In 1986 a family was encouraged to show off a couple of their creations at the Long Beach, CA bike show and eventually they traveled with a few frames on their back to California. While they were at the show, someone made them aware that another company was also exhibiting titanium bikes, but at the opposite end of the hall. That company was called Kestrel, but eventually ended up being called Merlin as the name Kestrel had been already been taken by another company.

The response at the Long Beach show was phenomenal for the family and it was now time to name the bike company. "It is light and it is fast, how about Litespeed?" was one of the suggestions that really stuck, but eventually it was decided to spell it Litespeed.

Litespeed quickly got a great reputation as a very experienced titanium manufacturer, and before too long Litespeed was creating frames for many notable brands within the bike industry, including but not limited to: DeRosa, Merckx, Tommassini, Basso, Univega, Alpinestars, Marin and Rocky Mountain. This work actually helped Litespeed in more than one way as basically some of the greatest minds in cycling were sharing their bike design philosophies with Litespeed and all the folks at Litespeed soaked up all that information like sponges. Before too long, bicycle frames and components were the main business of Litespeed and outsource work was less and less accepted.

Litespeed was now touted as the world leader in cycling technology, and to this day Litespeed has been pushing the envelope of cycling technology development.